Vay's time at Triaina Acedemy
by Nechie
Summary: Inspired by Triana Academy, an interactive novel WIP written by LeoXII on .


Vay was many things but she never viewed herself as weak, and yet, as she stumbled down a vacant tunnel - body wracked with with hunger and exhaustion, swamped in clothes too big and tattered - she realized her self image may need to be reevaluated. Eventually, her legs failed her and she collapsed against the unforgiving chill of concrete. She couldn't bring herself to move even when her bony fingers still clutched stubbornly around her pocket knife - her one possession that held any worth. It wasn't anything special; nothing grand. No rubies embedded in the hilt, no fancy engravings or sweet words inscribed down the blade. Just a one in a million pocket knife.

Still she wagered it was worth more than her life.

She tried getting back to her feet. She couldn't just lay there and- what, die? She shook her head and worked that much harder to get her legs back under her. She couldn't- she had to-

Her body gave out.

She fell against the cold concrete with tears of frustration and fear welling in her eyes.

_No_...

_No way..._

"Hey!"

•●•

Vay jerked awake. She took a deep inhale as the dream- no, _memory_, dissolved away and awareness of her current state returned. No longer that starving girl in a lone, out of the way tunnel, but a young adult toned with muscle and soft with fat - fit enough to keep up with her little brother, but not dedicated enough to trim down her thick thighs and stomach pouch. She made an honest attempt at stretching out the stiffness that settled in her limbs from a long train ride and took stock of what was happening in the train booth next to her.

Her little brother, Emil, was hunched forward over a game of cards with their newly obtained travel companion, Ren, and by the looks on their faces - one scrunched up and disgruntled, the other trained around an easy smirk - Ren was winning. Vay was soon proven right when Emil lost yet another hand.

"Why are you even spending time with us, bird-brain?" he huffed. A little... bland but Vay still felt a little pride at the attempt at a witty insult. How they they grow up so fast!

"It's so boring alone, and you're the most entertaining people here, along with being the only other students," Ren replied, unperturbed. From the corner of her eye, Vay caught the slight shift from Emil at the unintentional reminder of yersterday's... unfortunate situation.

Exactly how bad was the political climate that they feared students of the academy would be attacked by other civilians? That's what Vay gathered from their preventing of any non-academic affiliated citizens from boarding; security. If it wasn't bad before, she was sure there was now a reason to hate them. They might've even put a target on the backs of anyone adorning the academy uniform, one she was sure wasn't there before. Of course, she could simply be over thinking these things.

"And besides, something tells me I should stick around you two. I have a sense for these things."

"Do you now?" Vay said. It was her adopted mother that claimed Vay didn't merely speak, she purred her words with a slow deliberation.

Ren shot her a crooked grin as she shuffled her deck of cards. She was a pretty one, Vay would give her that, with tumbling blonde hair and blue eyes sparking with mischief and light-hearted deceit. How unfortunate her personality didn't have much of an appeal to Vay, she looked like a good kisser.

Those blue eyes moved from Vay to something out the window over her shoulder, and she turned around to see what had caught her attention.

"It's the Academy!" Emil excitedly pointed out, also spotting what they had spotted.

"Indeed," Vay said with an appreciative hum. The goliath structure loomed in the horizon, piercing the sky and obscuring the top of the outer dome in clouds. An architectural marvel in every sense of the word.

Ren gave a whistle, "That's one hell of a sight. Let's hope it's as structurally sound as it is impressive." Emil agreed with the blonde for once. Vay wasn't entirely sure what they were so worried about. An attack perhaps? It didn't stick out like sore thumb...

Once they were docked and allowed to disembark onto an underground station, they were greeted by one guard that was quick to redirect them to another more heavily armed guard posted in the "Students Only" lane. The bulky syringe gave them all pause and a nervous gulp from Emil had Vay giving his shoulder a quick, reassuring squeeze.

"And what's this, then?" Vay asked.

"It's a S.T.E.M Identification Chip. All students are required to undergo this injection. The process is streamlined to be as painless as possible."

Oh, she didn't like the sound of that at all, and needles always did make her skin crawl. With an added bonus of being chipped? "No thank you, I'll see myself home" was at the tip of her tongue.

"Oh, well, that should be fine, right?" Emil asked, turning to Vay for some sort of guidance. Vay hummed, trying to keep the frown threatening to tug at her lips at bay.

"Yes, of course." She gave his shoulder another squeeze, more for herself than anything, and volunteered first, moving her dark hair out of the way to bare her neck. After all, she was the older one of the two, it was her responsibility to put Emil at ease. The process was as painless and streamlined as promised, save for a little pinch, but trying to step through the metal detector? Not so much.

"Step aside, ma'am."

Vay fought back her grimace and complied, removing the one thing on her person that would cause the alarm to sound; her pocket knife.

"Ma'am, I'm afraid I'm going to have to confiscate any and all weapons."

"Yes, of course." Despite her words, Vay was quite reluctant to give up her pocket knife. In the end, she did relinquish her weapon and stepped through the detector once more. Satisfied, she was permitted onward.

"I can't believe you brought that with you," Emil hissed as Ren made flirty quips at the guard administrating the shot, mostly implying there should be drinks before any penetration should occur.

"Sorry, force of habit," Vay replied, looking ahead. She was only half lying. A part of her did acknowledge the fact she no longer needed a knife on her person. Another part recognized a new place meant more uncertainty. Having a knife within reach usually eased any... anxiety that came with adventuring into uncharted territory.

•●•

The siblings parted from Ren to check out the gymnasium, leaving the blonde to her own devices. Early morning light flooded the impressive, no-expense-spared, two story facility from the glass ceiling. There was equipment and a pool situated on the first and a track on the second. From were the stood, they could see a mop of brilliant red hair making use of it. That immediately piqued Vay's curiosity.

"Only if I wasn't in uniform," she heard Emil mutter behind her as she left him to explore and made her way up to the track. With the way it over looked the first, it might as have been an over-sized balcony.

The head of red hair, she soon found out, belonged to lean and athletic young man who definitely had a runner's build. He looked as if he was in the middle of growing out an undercut; the sides not shaved but the hair on top definitely longer than the rest. It didn't seem to be styled in any particular way either, the longest parts damp with sweat and messy. His legs were long and muscular, and his ass? _Fine_. Not that she was was deliberately looking for eye candy, he just happened to be running with his backside to her and it would such a shame to not look at something that took effort to... shape.

When he did turn to complete the stretch, That's when Vay noticed a light dusting of freckles and the scar clawing up his cheek. Before she could take in more however, a loud explosive voice called out to her, "What the fuck you looking at, scum?"

Vay smirked, draping an arm across her body and resting an elbow on that hand. Her other hand up to finger her lip as if in thought. "Art."

The reaction that got her was both equal parts heated and comical. At least to her anyway, with the way his eyes bulged out, veins popped up, and face flushed red, most likely out of confused anger. He began to advance on her. "What- what the hell did you just say?!" Well now that's quite the reaction. When they were near near face to face with one another the explosive red head looked just about ready to punch the closest thing. If Vay acknowledged the closest thing was her, she didn't show it, meeting those expressive green eyes with her own even grays.

"Forgive me, I didn't mean anything by it." It wouldn't be the first time she made someone uncomfortable with the way she openly checked out people. It was a bad habit left over from her time on the streets where manners were a wasted effort and body language told whole stories. Mainly if they had cash or were low enough risk to steal food from. Of course now it had less to do with trying to get by and more to do with the fact she can actually appreciate the person as more than a means to an end. Something not everyone enjoyed. Whoops.

"What kind of dumbass-"

"Hey!" They both turn to find Emil at the top of the stairs barely winded, though she didn't doubt he ran the whole way up. Under their combined gaze he quickly became flustered. "I-I mean- I-"

"The red head sneered. "Whatever. I'm getting out of here before more dumbasses come out to pester me." He stomped off, Emil getting out of the way despite the wide stairwell. When her brother turned back, it was a frown of disapproval.

"Are you okay? What was that about?"

"I'm fine. We were just having a polite conversation over his... assets," she replied with a smirk. Emil blushed and stammered out words but Vay paid him no mind. "Want something from the vending machine?"

"Vay!"


End file.
